Outline for teaching San Juan rules

Based on The Finer Points of Teaching Rules by Mario T. Lanza

1. Set up the pieces

2. One-liner: "We will be taking turns governing the city of San Juan, deciding when to harvest goods, when to sell them, and when to construct buildings. Each building earns you victory points, and the bigger the better."

3. Overview 4. Details

(Demonstrate everything with examples)

3a. Mechanics

• Choose role. Do action + privilege. Others do action. Optional.
• Builder
• Read action and privilege
  
• No duplicate violet buildings
• Producer
• Read action and privilege
• Unlike Puerto Rico buildings: 1 good max
• Trader
• Read action and privilege
• Advantage of a good memory
• Councillor
• Read action and privilege
• Prospector
• Read action and privilege

3b. Scoring

• Buildings (bottom of card), number of cards under chapel, triumphal arch, guild hall, city hall, palace
• Chapel: put 1 card under (governor phase)
• Triumphal Arch: for 1, 2, 3 monuments: 4, 6, 8 VP
• Guild Hall: 2 VP for each production building
• Palace: 1 VP for every 4 VP
  
• Tiebreaker: most cards in hand + goods
  

3c. Chronology

• Player 1 (governor) chooses role. All do action.
  
• Player 2 chooses role. All do action.
• Player 1 chooses role. All do action.
• Put roles back. Player 2 becomes governor.
• Governor's duties. More than 7 cards OK during the round.
  

3d. Game end

• 12 buildings.
  
• Specifically, end of builder phase.
  
• Typically 11-14 rounds.
  

5. Exceptions (i.e. the buildings)

• Library: Double your privilege (once per round).
  
• Smithy: $1 discount on production buildings (not violet buildings).
• Gold mine: In prospector phase, place top 4 cards face up. If different costs, take one.
• Prefecture: In councillor phase, take 2 cards instead of 1.
• Archive: In councillor phase, can discard from hand. (Combine with Library to refresh 7 cards).
  
• Quarry: $1 discount on violet buildings.
  
• Carpenter: After building a violet building, draw a card.
  
• Poor house: After building a building, if you only have 1 card or no cards, draw a card.
• Black market: Use up to 2 goods to help pay for a building.
• Aqueduct: Produce 1 additional good.
• Trading post: Sell 1 additional good.
• Well: If produce 2 or more goods, draw a card.
• Market hall: If sell 1 or more goods, draw a card.
• Market stand: If sell 2 or more goods, draw a card.
• Crane: Build on top of a building, using the old building for a discount. The old building is destroyed (not part of discount if you use crane again). Any goods are destroyed. Chapel cards preserved.
• Tower: Hand limit 12 instead of 7.
• Chapel: put 1 card under (governor phase)
• Monuments: Used with Triumphal Arch.
• Triumphal Arch: for 1, 2, 3 monuments: 4, 6, 8 VP
• Guild Hall: 2 VP for each production building
• Palace: 1 VP for every 4 VP
  
• Tiebreaker: most cards in hand + goods